The long-popular Black Beauty is an engaging story told from the perspective of a horse. Black Beauty's experiences lead him through a diverse series of encounters and bring him into contact with many characters, including other horses with stories of their own to tell.

Sewell uses Black Beauty's story to explore her theme of cruelty to animals.

She shows the positive results of kind treatment, while attacking the animal abuse common in her times. Sewell believed that animal cruelty was a societal problem that could not be ignored, a problem that was often caused by ignorance and fashion, as well as intentional abuse.

The lines between good and evil are clearly drawn, and this fable is intended to leave the reader with a strong moral lesson that it is better to be a good person than an evil one. The horses are mistreated through no fault of their own...